Collaboraction Tours Evolved Version of Hit Original Play Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology to Four Parks This Summer

5/8/2013

Collaboraction Theatre Company is adapting their hit original play Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology into an evolved sequel entitled Crime Scene Chicago: Let Hope Rise and touring it to four public parks this summer with free admission in partnership with the Chicago Park District.

Show times are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. Tickets are free and can be reserved by emailing lethoperise@collaboraction.org. Learn more at www.collaboraction.org or call 312.226.9633. Crime Scene: Let Hope Rise runs approximately 85 minutes, followed each night by a facilitated discussion. The show is recommended for ages 14 and up due to violence and mature content.

Crime Scene Chicago: Let Hope Rise is a timely new theatrical reaction to Chicago’s history of violent crime and a call to discover what it might take to create lasting change in our city. The show, a Collaboraction world premiere conceived and directed by Anthony Moseley, couples nonfiction source material such as interviews, articles, and online comments with re-enactments of true Chicago crimes to raise critical questions surrounding segregation, poverty, the news media, popular culture, and our numbness to it all.

When it originally opened in mid-February, the play was universally lauded by the local press, receiving 3 ½ stars from the Chicago Tribune, a HIGHLY RECOMMENDED rating from the Chicago Sun-Times, a video profile on WTTW-TV Chicago Tonight, and national feature coverage in the March issue of American Theatre Magazine.

In adapting the play for the tour, the team envisions a sequel that takes a closer look at the systemic conditions that enable and abet violence, and incorporates a more hopeful tone than the original piece, whose primary goal was to awaken patrons to the epidemic of senseless violence in the city.

Community Involvement

Collaboraction is not interested in merely performing the play for a new audience. Rather, they seek to form lasting connections with community members in each of the four neighborhoods they visit, and to engage the public in a two-way conversation about the crime epidemic. The team will conduct interviews with residents and business owners in order to incorporate the specific nature of each community into the piece, as well as incorporating community members into the actual performance. Collaboraction will also be offering free workshops on turning your stories into devised theater on Saturdays in each location.

On Saturdays before the 8 p.m. performance each week, Collaboraction will host a free barbeque in the park featuring their renowned Dome of Dance dance-battle tournament, food, and other activities.

Every performance will also be followed by a facilitated conversation with the audience about what we as Chicagoans can do about the prevalence of violent crime in our city. Representatives from our Community Partner organizations will serve as co-facilitators, helping to guide the discussions alongside the cast and crew. Through meeting other concerned community members, learning about the many great nonprofits that are working to stem the violence, and openly discussing many conflicting perspectives of the epidemic, these conversations will provide audiences with a bright spark of hope within this dark subject matter.

Press accolades include:

"Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology, far and away the best Collaboraction show I've seen these past 14 years, is indeed a call for collaborative action…There is something particularly special about this cast. Three and a half stars.” – Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

"…There is something about the 85-minute Crime Scene that is so direct, visceral, youthful and winningly honest (meaning not at all predictably politically correct) that you might at least find yourself listening again — willing to get beyond the overload of disgust, impotence and sense of futility…Conceived and expertly directed by Anthony Moseley, Crime Scene has the feel of a streetwise Greek tragedy as it employs elements of history, testimony, song and hip-hop oration.”
– Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

"...a gripping tale of the Chicago condition that gets to the heart of our suffering."- Mark Konkol, Pulitzer-Prize winning crime writer for DNAinfo.com

“The success of this work as theater indicates its potential to reach beyond its black box space and start vital conversations, and yes, even incite actions needed to staunch the flow of blood in Chicago streets…” – Erika Mikkalo, StageandCinema.com

Behind the Scenes of Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology

According to director, co-deviser and Collaboraction Artistic Director Anthony Moseley, “the inspiration for Crime Scene came from a need to create work connected to important issues in our community. I strive to create a visceral experience that will awaken and spur personal change. I believe theatre can serve a critical role in addressing the issue of violence by offering Chicagoans a transcendent artistic experience that forces us to confront and question the core elements of the senseless violence.”

Designers include John Wilson (set and technical direction), Jeremy Getz (lights), Livui Pasare (video), Elsa Hiltner (costumes) and Angela Campos (props). Samantha Chavis is dramaturg. Fight choreography is by David Woolley. Sara Carranza is stage manager. Crime Scene: A Chicago Anthology is produced by Sarah Moeller. Production management is by Susanne Hufnagel.

Collaboraction is a Chicago-based arts organization of collaborative theater and experience makers focused on becoming a national leader of contemporary theater. By incorporating innovative artists and interdisciplinary collaboration, Collaboraction audiences are sure to experience groundbreaking theatrical and arts-based events.

Anthony Moseley serves as the Founding Executive and Artistic Director of Collaboraction, where he has produced over 50 productions, 12 SKETCHBOOK Festivals and over 250 events since the company’s founding in 1999. In 2000 Moseley co-founded the annual SKETCHBOOK Festival, which was lauded by Kerry Reid of the Chicago Reader as “the premiere short play festival in the Midwest.” Under Moseley’s direction, SKETCHBOOK has produced 158 world premiere short plays in a mixed media environment with music and visual art and this year the 13th annual SKETCHBOOK will include 4 programs of works between 7 and 60 minutes. Moseley’s Collaboraction directing credits include the world premieres of El Grito Del Bronx (a co-production with Teatro Vista in association with the Goodman Theatre), The Pull Toy (and His Pasian), and Heroes and Villains; Chicago premieres of dark play or stories for boys by Carlos Murrillo, Be a Good Little Widow by Bekah Brunstetter, Refuge (2000 Jeff Citation nomination for Best Direction), The Cosmonaut's Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union, Trueblinka and Guinea Pig Solo; as well as Mud, To Kill a Mockingbird, and numerous world premiere short plays for the SKETCHBOOK Festival.

The Chicago Park District is the largest municipal park manager in the nation and owner of more than 8,100 acres of green space. We invite you to take in a concert or a movie at one of our 580 parks, to expand your horizons by registering for one of our thousands of programs offered throughout our 260 field houses, to get a great workout indoors at one of our state-of-the-art fitness centers, or outdoors along Lake Michigan’s 26 miles of pristine lakefront, or enjoy nature with a peaceful visit.